Cub Reporter Paul Tomm is asked to write an obituary for an elderly University Professor who is found dead in his home. As Paul searches for some background information he finds that the Professor had gone to great lengths to keep his life very safe and private, and may not have been who he claimed to be. When Paul visits the professor’s home he notices that there is a display cabinet containing 15 empty display stands. Hence we begin an investigation into the mysterious Estonian Professor whose dead body belies his true age.
The main story line is broken up by every alternate chapter being a short story involving one of the 15 missing library items, which are in themselves historically fascinating.
Paul Tomm is a very likeable character, but I felt that there could have been more substance to the main story line which faltered around ¾ of the way through the book and left you with a most unsatisfactory ending. But, there appears to be some painstaking research and it was worth reading just for the stories relating to the Alchemy artifacts.
About the Author
Fasman was born in 1975 in Chicago, and has worked as a journalist in Moscow. The Geographer’s Library was an attempt to understand something about ‘the ruined, glorious country’ he was living in with his Russian girlfriend and also to try to understand what would drive someone to commit a sinful act if it was for something they truly believed in.
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